Industrialized countries rely upon transportation systems such as over the road trucks, trains, airplanes, and boats for distribution and transportation of both large objects and balky commodities. It is important to the safety of the transportation vehicle, whether it be a truck, car, boat, or train, and to the safety of the cargo or article that is transported, that the cargo or article is stabilized and/or retained while being transported. If the cargo or article shifts or moves during transport, the cargo or article can be damaged, ejected, or lost, in addition, the inside of the cargo container can also be damaged. Further, if the cargo or article is not sufficiently stabilized to avoid shifting, the cargo or article can potentially unbalance the vehicle and create a dangerous situation. For example, if a vehicle is loaded so that the cargo or article is distributed evenly in the cargo area of the vehicle and the cargo or article shifts its location dramatically while the vehicle is traveling, for instance during the negotiation of a curve on the road, the shifting cargo or article can potentially upset the vehicles center of gravity to such an extent to possibly cause the driver of the vehicle to lose control of the vehicle.
To avoid cargo or article shifting, cargos or articles are packed as carefully as possible in the container to eliminate any open spaces within the container to minimize the possibility of the cargo or article shifting. In many circumstances, however, depending upon the specific type of cargo or the nature and size or bulk of the cargo, necessarily result in open spaces between the cargo or article items within the cargo container, especially in the case of the cargo container being partially filled with cargo or articles which is a quite common occurrence. This is especially true where the cargo or article is heavy, or of such a unique shape such as a piece of cargo or article that is very long and narrow, that the cargo container may be at best a compromise to contain the cargo or article and retain it securely, thus of necessity requiring an open (not having sidewalls or a roof) transportation platform or medium such as a flat bed truck, or flat bed rail car, or flat bed trailer. In order to secure the open regions of the cargo container, it is desirable to provide some sort of restraint device between the cargo or article and the walls of the cargo bed. These types of cargo or article retention devices need to be constructed to withstand the shifting forces typically encountered during transport of the cargo or articles. Likewise, they must also be relatively lightweight and preferably capable of adapting to any number of size differences that exist between the various cargo containers and cargo or article shapes. It is also desired that the cargo retention device is easily portable and movable and readily securable/unsecurable within the cargo container space thus allowing the cargo retention device to be easily installed or removed from the cargo containing area.
Focusing specifically on light duty trucks and/or trailers and their respective cargo containing areas the aforementioned problem has been well recognized in the proper art. Furthermore, in retaining cargo or the article by utilizing a flexible strap (with the strap usually having flexibility parallel to its lengthwise axis and reduced flexibility transverse to its lengthwise axis) wherein the strap forms an attachment between the transporting medium and the cargo or article to help prevent the undesirable movement of the cargo or article. As the strap usually has two open or free ends, there is of necessity a strap retainer apparatus required that is adapted to attach to one of the open ends, to facilitate engagement and disengagement of the strap secured around the cargo, wherein the other strap open end is typically substantially selectively fixedly adjustable along the lengthwise axis of the strap or the strap can be tensioned or “cinched” around the cargo or article by manually applying a force along the strap lengthwise axis away from the cargo or article. Thus, one exemplary focus of the prior art review is on the strap apparatus, specifically its attachment to the strap and/or other structure to selectively fixedly retain the strap along the lengthwise axis of the strap.
Further, for retaining articles, the retainer apparatus can be used outside of the cargo applications area, for example for pet leashes that typically use a snap type hook to connect the main body of the leash being the nylon strap type webbing, also life lines, cranes, hoists, and related applications. Additional applications would be somewhat akin to carabineer type applications for sports activities, such as mountaineering, camping, skiing, snowboarding, boating, water skiing, and all other related applications wherein anywhere a removable engagement is desired between two elements.
In looking at the typical prior art for retainer apparatus type mechanisms, starting with U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,148 to Johnson disclosed is a snap hook including a keeper arm swingably mounted thereto, so that a line passed through the eye of the snap hook is adapted to be clampingly engaged against movement of the line in an opposite direction through the line, referencing column 2, lines 4-9 and 18-20. Basically Johnson has the added feature of a slidable engagement that can axially grip a compressible cable at a selected axial location by way of a pinching lever arm coupled with a conventional carabineer type retainer. Continuing, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,316 to Gabriel disclosed is a carabineer that includes a C-shaped, elongated body member and an elongated closure member that is pivotally movable on one longitudinally terminal portion of the body member toward and away from a closing position in which both members jointly constitute a closed loop. Gabriel uses novel structure in having thin and thick walls segments for the middle body and end portions respectively to stamp the end portions of the body member loop for the pivot and engagement interfaces to have a smooth inner contour without the need for machining.
Further, looking at U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,726 to Harris et al. disclosed is an animal leash comprising two elements, a lead made of woven nylon with a loop at each end, and a carabineer attached to one or both of the loops and a collar, halter, or harness. The combination in Harris et al., provides a simple and convenient attachment of the leash to the animal, reference column 1, lines 67-68 and column 2, lines 1-3 and 25-27, wherein the combination is principally the loops and the carabineer in accommodating easy engagement and disengagement of the lead/carabineer combination from the animal. Yet continuing in U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,431 to Lewis disclosed is a safety snap hook which will not accidentally open or release. The snap hook in Lewis has a guard overlying the latch to protect from being opened by a pressure from D type or O type rings, should the means for urging the latch closed fail, the guard will prevent the latch from inadvertently opening. The D type or O type rings are engaged by the hook in Lewis, wherein the guard is movable to apply pressure to the snap tongue or latch for opening same by one hand of the user, reference column 1, lines 7-9 and 39-44. Continuing, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,226 to Foster disclosed is a snap hook having opening and closing movements of the snap hook member under control of the thumb and forefinger of the user, to maintain the hook effectively closed and open until desired to be closed that includes a means for urging that acts to help keep the snap hook open and when closed the means for urging assists in engaging a locking bar into a notch, reference, column 1, lines 28-33.
What is needed is a strap retainer apparatus that is simple and effective in design in having a simple and easy engagement and disengagement possible between for instance a pair of articles for helping to achieve a high level of convenience even allowing for a potential one handed operation in the engagement and disengagement process. In situations involving outside environment applications, wherein the weather is cold and the user of the retainer apparatus possibly has gloves on, especially on the engaging process of the retainer apparatus to the article it would be desirable to engage the retainer apparatus to the article by merely placing the retainer apparatus proximate to but not necessarily in contact with the article, wherein the article could be magnetically attracted to the retainer apparatus and with a single movement of the user's hand holding the retainer apparatus, the retainer apparatus engages the article, which can be useful in situation wherein the article is difficult to see, or have access to, or in low light environmental conditions. This is as opposed to most of the previously described prior art clasping or snap hooks that require typically at least three movements of the user hand such as squeezing (first movement) open the clasp and then positioning (second movement) the hook through the article while continuing the squeeze the clasp and then releasing (third movement) the clasp to close after the hook is positioned through the article to result in the retainer apparatus being positively engaged to the article. Thus, typically the prior art clasping or snap hooks have a more time consuming effort by the user needing to articulate three movements with their hand and having a requirement for a visual observation of the snap hook and article interface to successfully engage the snap hook to the article, which can be difficult especially in the case of gloved hands of the user and reduced lighting environmental conditions.